Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system, a method for controlling the printing system, and a computer-readable storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0190057 discusses a print on demand (POD) printing system that utilizes an electrophotographic type printing apparatus or an inkjet type printing apparatus. By utilizing the POD printing system, it becomes unnecessary to prepare a block copy or execute complicated operations.
In the POD printing system, however, post-processing by a post-processing apparatus (e.g., an inline finisher), by which a sheet can be fed from a printing apparatus and conveyed via a conveyance path, cannot be utilized independently from printing by the printing apparatus. Accordingly, the POD printing system cannot solve further problems to be solved, which may arise when post-processing by an inline finisher is available independently from printing by a printing apparatus provided in the POD printing system.
Now, the further problems of the POD system will be described. Hereinbelow, a job for executing post-processing by a post-processing apparatus after printing by a printing apparatus is defined as an “inline job”, while a job for executing post-processing by a post-processing apparatus without executing printing by a printing apparatus is defined as an “offline job”.
In executing an offline job, a user sets sheets to be processed in the offline job on an inserter of a post-processing apparatus. In this case, if the printing apparatus executes an inline job before executing the offline job, the sheets set by the user on the inserter for the offline job may be used for the inline job.